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One of the first to pay tribute to Sir Edward was Lady Thatcher, his long time adversary within the Tory Party.

She said: "Ted Heath was a political giant. He was also, in every sense, the first modern Conservative leader - by his humble background, his grammar school education and by the fact of his democratic election.

"As Prime Minister, he was confronted by the enormous problems of post-war Britain.

"If those problems eventually defeated him, he had shown in the 1970 manifesto how they, in turn, would eventually be defeated.

"For that, and much else besides, we are all in his debt."

Tony Blair and Michael Howard also paid tribute to Sir Edward.

The Prime Minister said: "He was a man of great integrity and beliefs he held strongly from which he never wavered.

"He will be remembered by all who knew him as a political leader of great stature and significance."

Mr Howard described Sir Edward as "one of the political giants of the second half of the 20th century".

"He was the last Conservative leader who had served in the Second World War.

"As chief whip, as a senior cabinet minister and, of course, as prime minister he made an enormous contribution to the political life of our country.

"He will always be remembered as a prime minister who took Britain into the European Economic Community but his achievements went far beyond that.

"His passing will be mourned far and wide."

A carpenter's son from Broadstairs, Kent, Edward Richard George Heath reached the top by dint of hard work and determination. After a grammar school education at Chatham House, Ramsgate, followed by an organ scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, he entered Parliament as an MP in 1950.

Within 20 years he had become the Tories' first working class prime minister after defeating Harold Wilson in the June 1970 election.

Sir Edward's crowning achievement and lasting legacy during more than half a century in the Commons was to lead Britain into Europe. But he will also be remembered as the one-term Conservative prime minister who never forgave Margaret Thatcher for ousting him from the Tory leadership.

The bitterness over this was deep and was reflected in almost ceaseless, and sometimes savage, attacks on her policies. No Conservative leader of the 20th century had been subjected to such ferocious assaults from within the party.

As a result, Sir Edward attracted anger and even bitterness from many Tories instead of the respect usually accorded to elder statesmen.

Many Right-wing Conservative MPs who regarded Britain's integration into Europe as a disaster treated Sir Edward with something approaching revulsion. Their insults and jibes were far more savage than those they inflicted upon their Labour opponents.

Sir Edward became father of the house in 1992 as the continuously longest-serving MP and was active in the Commons until his mid-80s.

He fought the 1997 election with a vigour and gusto which would have done credit to a man half his age. But on October 24, 2000 - the day after conducting the election for the new Speaker - he announced that he would be retiring from the Commons at the end of that Parliament. The announcement brought a host of tributes, even from some of those Conservatives who were his principal critics.

Sir Edward retired at the June 2001 general election, and declared that he had no desire to enter the House of Lords.

He astonished his colleagues when, in his late 70s, he undertook the arduous and perilous road trip across the Iraqi desert to meet Saddam Hussein to call for the release of British hostages.

A bachelor, Sir Edward's chief loves were music and sailing, in which he competed at international level, captaining Britain's winning Admiral's Cup team in 1971.

His affection for his Salisbury home, with its view of the cathedral from the living room, was also well known.

Admiring it on one visit, his old friend and rival Roy Jenkins remarked "that must be among the top 10 most beautiful views in the country".